


Winter's Night

by Serie11



Series: Femslash February 2018 [27]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Cute, F/F, Fluff, Magic, Petra being a BAMF, Sappy Varga, Varga being Cute, Wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 09:04:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13830930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: The magic in the air shifts slightly, and Aloy’s attention turns to it. Varga shifts beside her uneasily. Aloy has always had an acute sense for different types of magic, and it’s annoying her that she can’t pin down what this one is.“I don’t need to know what it that is to know that it’s probably going to eat us if we give it a chance,” Varga says sagely. “Let's go inside."





	Winter's Night

 

Aloy stands in the courtyard and frowns. There’s something strange about the air tonight, and she doesn’t like it. The Academy stands silent behind her, most of the girls sensibly asleep. But Aloy has never called herself sensible nor needed much sleep, so here she is, standing in the dark night, probably tempting something to jump out and eat her.

She rubs her hands together and blows on them, her breath frosting from the cold. She’s wrapped up in her furs and coats, but it’s still freezing. It’s always freezing this far north. Sometimes Aloy longs for the summers of her youth, where she could play in the open without a coat on.

The Academy is located in a place colloquially known to locals as the Cut. Aloy doesn’t know where the name originally came from, but girls at the Academy joke that the name came from the brutal entry conditions that the teachers hold the young wizards to when they’re completing their work. Aloy is in her last year of study and her year has narrowed over time as girls were sent home, their grades lacking. The Academy demanded the best, and only kept the best.

As prefect, Aloy had a few privileges that the others didn’t – namely, if a teacher caught her out here, they would just tell her to go to bed rather than expelling her. However, the person who was walking towards her didn’t have that privilege.

“Hey! What are you doing out here? It’s too cold to be standing about.”

Varga comes up and throws her arm around Aloy. Aloy tilts her head towards her.

“I couldn’t sleep, that’s all.”

“Well I know just the thing for that,” Varga says excitedly.

“Oh?” Aloy asks, wondering if Varga is thinking along the same lines that she is. Her lips are right there, calling out to her…

“A machine that makes your bed warm!”

They’re not thinking the same thing.

“Listen. You know how it sucks in the winter when you get in bed and it’s cold, right?”

“If only there was a way to fix that,” Aloy says dryly, staring at Varga. Varga nods quickly, Aloy’s insinuation going over her head.

“Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking. So you know how I tried a spell to heat up the room the other day and accidentally set our dorm on fire?”

“That was _you_?” Aloy asks, half aghast half amazed. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me right away!”

“Oh,” Varga says, cheeks colouring slightly. “Yeah, well, I was kinda embarrassed. But! That got me thinking. Since magic wasn’t working, what was another way that I could make things warmer in winter?”

“We have a heater in the room, you realise,” Aloy points out.

“Well obviously,” Varga says. “But it’s so inefficient! It barely heats us up at all, and I hate that they won’t let me tamper with it. So obviously I was trying out different ways to get warm, and the fire thing happened, and ah, yeah. So this is my new idea – a warm blanket. You put it in the bed and then turn it on and it makes everything super warm for you, and then you can just get in and then you don’t have to worry about being cold!”

“That still sounds like a fire hazard,” Aloy says. Varga’s machines have gotten a lot better over the years and they’re definitely a lot less dangerous now than they were in the past, but Aloy still remembers their early years at the Academy and how Varga would set fires every second day. The only reason she hadn’t been expelled was because her father was a wealthy donator to the school, and the fact that Varga’s grades are through the roof.

“It won’t be a fire hazard,” Varga insists. “I’ve thought about it. Plus you’re not meant to keep it on while you’re in the bed. Otherwise you’d get too hot.”

The magic in the air shifts slightly, and Aloy’s attention turns to it. Varga shifts beside her uneasily. Aloy has always had an acute sense for different types of magic, and it’s annoying her that she can’t pin down what this one is.

“That doesn’t feel too good,” Varga says uneasily. “Let’s go back inside, for real.”

“I’m trying to figure out what it is,” Aloy argues.

“By yourself?” Varga asks, horrified. “We should just tell the teachers.”

“Tell them what? That we felt a weird magic feeling?” Aloy purses her mouth. “I want to know what it is.”

“I don’t need to know what it is to know that it’s probably going to eat us if we give it a chance,” Varga says sagely. “Look, just come inside. We can tell Petra about it and she can get some of her cannons out here along with some of the teachers, and then I can show you my plans for the warm blanket.”

Aloy sighs. She knows that Varga is right. She casts a quick luminance spell that hovers over their heads and lights their way as they head back to the dorms.

“You go back inside, and I’ll tell Petra,” Aloy says. “You’re not meant to be out at this time of night.”

“Well I was worried when I saw that you were missing,” Varga says, putting her hands on her hips. “And who can blame me! You were going to fight that thing by yourself and probably get killed before anyone else could come out to help.”

“I wasn’t,” Aloy protests. Varga rolls her eyes and leans over to give her a quick kiss before darting down the hallway. Aloy lingers in front of Petra’s room for a minute to give her time to get away before she knocks.

The door opens immediately. Petra looks tired but her lights are on and she’s obviously been working on something – that’s why Aloy went to her and not any of the other teachers.

“What’s up, spark?” Petra asks, peering around the hallway.

“There’s something weird outside,” Aloy says. “I thought that I should come and get some teachers to deal with it.”

Petra eyes her. “No you didn’t.” She lifts an eyebrow. “I won’t tell the others about Varga, but please tell her that I’m glad that _someone_ is curbing your violent tendencies. I can tell that you’re chomping to fight whatever it is.”

“…maybe,” Aloy says non-committedly. “Look, can you do something about it?”

“Of course,” Petra scoffed. “You go back to your dorm and if anyone wakes up, tell them what’s happening, okay?”

“Okay,” Aloy says reluctantly. She jogs down the hall after Varga, while Petra starts knocking on other doors and waking the teachers up.

Their dorm is dim and quiet and Aloy opens the door to her room to find Varga sitting on her bed, tinkering with some wires and bits of metal.

“I’m not going to be happy if you set my bed on fire,” Aloy says, but flops down next to Varga and kicks her shoes off.

“Don’t be silly, there isn’t even anything flammable here,” Varga scoffs. “Did Petra take you seriously?”

“Yeah,” Aloy sighs. “I’m meant to answer any questions that the others have if they wake up.”

“Most of them have to sleep like the dead to ignore Talanah’s snoring,” Varga giggles. “It should be fine. Here, look at this.”

She hands over the piece of metal that she was working on. Aloy handles it gingerly. It’s a mess of wires and metal, and she can’t really tell what its purpose is… until she turns it in a particular way and realises that it makes a heart shape.

Varga grins when she looks up at her. “It’s a heart! I made it just for you. It’s like… I’m the metal, and even though I may look like a mess, inventing and making and stuff, deep down I’m just a sap for you.”

Aloy cradles the metal close to her chest. “Thank you Varga. I love it.”

“It can be improved, of course,” Varga says, reaching out for it. Aloy fends her off.

“Nope. You don’t get to improve this one. I like it just the way it is.”

“Ahh, please let me tinker with it some more.”

“Nuh uh.”

“Aloy!”

“It’s mine now.”

Varga pouts at her. Aloy smiles. “You’ll just have to make me a new one, hmm?”

Varga brightens immediately. “Right, of course. Now I don’t know if I like the shine of that metal, so I’ll use a different one instead, and of course it still has to retain the sneaky heart shape but it can be an _even sneakier_ heart shape –”

An explosion from outside cuts her off. Both girls look out the window, where Petra is wielding one of her famous cannons at a strange eldritch creature that Aloy is very thankful that she didn’t fight by herself. Petra has Erend, Vanasha and Ersa fighting by her side though, so they’ll all be fine.

“I suppose that’s my cue,” Aloy says, lifting an eyebrow. “You should go back to sleep. I’ll just wait out in the main common room until they’re finished so I can catch anyone who tries to leave.”

“Go to sleep and miss this awesome fight happening literally in our courtyard?” Varga says, shocked. “It’s like you don’t even know me at all.”

Aloy laughs. “Okay, fair.” She puts the gift of metal down on her desk. “No touching, got it?”

Varga frowns at her, but still follows her out the door. Aloy closes it behind her and makes a beeline for the common room. After all, she needs to get the best vantage point from all the windows.

Varga and her squish together on the most left window so they get an almost centre view of the fight. Aloy watches with bated breath as their mentors twirl fire and electricity magic to bring down the beast. _That’s_ what she wants to do when she gets out of here. Explore the world, and use her magic to take down as many dangerous creatures as possible.

“Looks like they’re holding their own,” Varga comments.

“Of course they are,” Aloy says, eyes fixed on the fight.

“Hey,” Varga says. Aloy drags herself away from the fight to look at her. “I’m glad that you’re not down there by yourself.”

“I’m glad too,” Aloy sighs after a second.

“You should take me with you when you go wandering so I can always dissuade you from doing dumb stuff,” Varga needles. “Come on, you know it’s a good idea.”

“You don’t have leave to be outside,” Aloy reminds her.

“You could arrange it,” Varga says.

“It’s not a good idea.”

“Well I don’t think that being out there by yourself is a good idea either.”

Aloy sighs. “Well, I’ll just try to stay inside more then, okay?”

Varga jumps a little bit. “Awesome!”

“It’s only getting colder at the moment, anyway,” Aloy notes.

“… of course,” Varga mutters.

“What?”

“Of course!” she shouts. “Not just a way to keep your bed warm, but also a way to keep _people_ warm!”

“What,” Aloy says flatly.

“Think about it,” Varga says, eyes sparkling encouragingly. “A warm jumper – literally! A jumper that has a heat spell charmed into it, or a jumper with wires and a machine that is always running to keep you warm?”

“That sounds like even more of a fire hazard than your warm blanket idea,” Aloy points out.

“No, it’s definitely not,” Varga says. She starts mumbling to herself, and Aloy shakes her head and looks back to the fight. She can deal with Varga’s terrible ideas in the morning – for now, she wants to watch Ersa and Erend pummel this creature with their twin lightning hammers.

**Author's Note:**

> FINALLY we get to Varga's fic. This prompt was: wizard AU. I hope you guys liked it!!


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